The Forgotten Eighth
by lilylunalegolas
Summary: What if the Prophecy of the Seven asked for One more? What if she was completely forgotten and erased from history? This is the true story of "The Prophecy of The Eight.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

 **Aspen**

 _Flashback_

Finally another school year finished. This one was long, and I had a feeling that I would not be welcome back. You sort of get that feeling if strange things kept happening to you. Dangerous things. Also, the fact that you've been kicked out of every school you've ever been in.

This had been such an exhausting year. I was ready to go home. I went to a boarding school in Washington DC, but I really lived in Fredericksburg, around two hours south of DC, depending on traffic. I actually didn't really live in Fredericksburg either. I lived in this splotch of county that could be a city, but wasn't.

I loved where I lived. Drive three hours in one direction, you're at the beach. Drive three hours in another direction and you're in the mountains. It snowed sometimes, but we never had really frigid winters. The only thing I didn't like was the humidity. You could feel fine inside, but one step outside in the summer and you felt like you were already sweating.

The drive home was long, as always. Traffic was horrible, as always. My dad was pretty busy today so they couldn't pick me up.

When I finally got to my front door, I waved away the driver and walked inside. My siblings weren't out of school yet. I walked up the stairs of my split level home and saw my dad sitting on the couch. Someone else I didn't know was there too.

"I thought you guys were busy." My dadlooked at me with sad eyes. "We," He paused. "Have something to tell you." I look at them and sit down. "Okay" My dad and the strange man looked at each other and said. "You're adopted" My world spun. My loving family I had always known hadn't even been mine?

"Say something Aspen" My dad urged. "You guys have lied to me for fourteen years?" "No, not fourteen, your biological mom died when you were four." "Oh" I sat in silence for a bit. I felt like a memory was trying to urge it's way out of hiding, but it couldn't escape. I should remember her, if I was four when she died. "Who named me?" They looked confused, like "Really, you find out your whole life is a lie and you ask who named you?" "Your previous mother." "Oh"

"What was she like? What about my dad? Did I have any siblings?" "Your mother was a musician and poet. You were an only child, and your father wasn't in the picture, which this man will explain to you."

I look over. There was a man in a wheelchair, who I had completely forgotten about during this whole ordeal. "So what about my dad?" I ask him. "I am Chiron, and like your mother said, he wasn't in the picture. He is probably like with all of his children. I-" "All of his children!" I interrupt. "How many does he have?" "I don't know, we don't even know who he is." "I thought you did?" "No, we do know what he is though."

"What he is?" I ask. "Aspen," Chiron started, "Have you ever heard of a demigod? From Greek culture?" "Yeah I think so, but don't change the subject." He chuckles. "I'm not, a demigod is someone who is half human, half god, and Aspen, you are one." I stare at him in shock and disbelief. "I'mma What?" I exclaim. "A demigod, a half blood, etc."

And That is how not two hours later I ended with a strange goth kid and my suitcase. "So, Nico right? How are we going to get there?" He rolled his eyes. "Shadow travel" He said in a tone that made sound as if it was obvious. "Okay, but what is sha-" "Grab your suitcase and my arm." I grab the handle on my yellow suitcase and grab his arm. Right after I grab his arm the world turns black and I feel really cold.

When I feel and see sunlight again I was at the top of a hill. "Follow Me" He said. I walked, trailing behind him. We walk into a gathering of cabins. "This is the Hermes cabin, you'll stay here until you get claimed." I look around. Nico sees that I am clearly confused and he says: "Will Solace will show you around." I don't want to go inside the Hermes cabin, so I sat outside on the step.

A blonde male walks up to me. "Aspen?" He asks. "You must be Will." I say standing up to shake his hand. "I'm here to show you around, I'm in the Apollo cabin."

He leads me around the camp and shows me around. When we arrive back at the Hermes cabin, I stop him before he leaves. "Will, what godly parent do you think I have?" He looked at me. "I don't know, you wanna find out?" "What? How?" "Like This" He takes my hand and runs.

We run around the camp, talking to campers about their parents, and it means to be their child. None of them sounded right. For some of them, like The Big Three, we tried to see if I had any special powers. Nope, at least not in those categories.

"You know that this is probably a waste, and one of the gods we already tried is my parent, right?" "Yeah, probably. Which ones did you like the best?" He asked. "I love learning about history and random facts, I have been told I have very good common sense, so I think Athena would be nice." He nods.

All of the sudden he jumps up. "Wait, we forgot one!" "Really? Which one?" My dad, Apollo." He says. "Okay, what do we have to do?" "To the infirmary!" He shouted, and dragged me along.

At the infirmary he brings in a demigod with a cut on his forearm. "What do we do?" He asks. "It's a small cut, so we won't need ambrosia, or nectar." He nods. "Bring me an egg" I shout. Will looks at me bewildered. The demigod patient does the same. "Just trust me." I say.

After we get an egg I tap it on a nearby table and peel off the shell so the membrane is showing. I peel off a big enough piece of the membrane and place on the cut, holding pressure. "See, this membrane works better than a bandaid, it covers the wound and helps the skin grow back, instead of only covering it." I look at Will, proud of myself. "Wow! I didn't even know that!" He exclaims. He rushes me off again.

"Next Apollo challenge! Archery!" He shouts when we get there. "First, Aspen do you have ANY experience in archery?" I shake my head no. "Okay well, here you go!" He hand me a bow and three arrows, and walks behind me. I shoot one after the other, they were all on the target well enough, but definitely not bullseyes. "That's pretty good for no experience." He says.

After we run towards a tree we sit down. "Now for the poetry test, make up a poem, or say something poetic." "Umm," "Wait hold on, describe what the sun is like so someone who has lived underground their whole life." "Okay, let's see," I think for a second.

"Sunlight is a light that kisses your face and warms you. It is more calming and wonderful than any other light. It can be a calming yellow at times, others a burning red, and finally a enlightening white. It is loving, harsh, and forgiving all at once It reaches in you and touches your heart and soul and warms them until all you feel is a warm tingling sensation."

Will stares at me, in what I hope is amazement. "That was amazing!" He looks up, "Just what I thought, welcome to the Apollo clan little sis." I look around and see people clapping. I look up and see a golden lyre appear over my head. "I'm a daughter of Apollo." I whispered to myself. "My father is a god."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **A/N:** I'm not going exactly by the book in this Fic, so thing will be a bit different.

 **Aspen**

"Hey guys, some new campers arrived today." Sonny, one of my sisters said. "Really? How many arrived?" She looked towards me. "Three. Two boys and a girl." "That's unusual. Usually it's just one or two" My brother David said. I gathered up my things and exited the cabin.

Our cabin was a bit overwhelming for some people. Only because we like to make it homey. There are boomboxes, notebooks, bows, arrows, poems and posters everywhere. My area was a bit strange because of the things hanging up. I had two poems, a poster and a little bow and arrow decoration hanging up. I had two opposite sides. For one, my poster was of a british girl group called Little Mix. My taste in poetry was not similar to my taste in music. The poems hanging up were my two favorite. " _The Highwayman"_ and " _Oh Captain My Captain"_

One thing you should know about the Apollo clan is that we don't fight. Well, at least that much. We only fight about which genre of music is better. Usually, we're pretty chill but when someone says something like "Classical music is simply superior" it usually ends up in the rest of us plus some pulling two sides away from each other.

I turn around only to bump into Annabeth. "Oh, I'm sorry." I say. Annabeth looked down. "They didn't know anything about Percy." She said. "Do you want to give some of them a tour?" She asked. It was only then that I noticed the three teens standing there. "Hello, I'm Aspen, daughter of Apollo. What's your names?" I reach out my hand to shake theirs.

They looked at me. One was a blonde boy, who would've looked fearsome, if he hadn't looked so confused. The other boy looked like a Santa's elf, latino style. "I'm Piper." The girl said reaching to shake my hand. "I'm Jason" the blonde said. "And, I'm Leo, Ultra Mcshizzle Bad Boy Supreme." The elf said with a bow and flutter of the hand.

"I'll take Piper, you take the boys." Annabeth said. "Okay, are you guys ready to tour, or are you hungry? I have some snacks hidden away if you haven't eaten in awhile." "I'm ready." Jason replied. "Same, but I wouldn't mind some snacks." Leo said. "Alright, first stop, Apollo cabin."

They follow me to my cabin and I open the door to reveal the indoors. With our yellow walls and sunlight it was extremely easy to see what the theme was. "You guys have a lot of stuff on the walls." Leo said. "Is that a stethoscope?" Jason said, pointing at a wall. "Yeah, that's my brother's bed. Will Solace." "Why a stethoscope?" Leo asked. "Isn't Apollo god of the sun?" I was sincerely glad none of my siblings were present. "He's god of the sun, music, poetry, archery, prophecy, and healing." I said. "Oh."

I go to my trunk and take out some beef jerky and apples. "Catch" I throw the beef jerky to them. I walk over to them and hand them the apples. "Why did you toss us the jerky but hand us the apples? They would have been easier to catch." Leo asks. "In Ancient Greece, throwing an apple is a marriage proposal. Catching it is accepting, do you know how complicated it would have been to marry you both?" Leo snorts, "Really? Any other weird traditions we should know about" I thought for a moment. "No, not that I can think of."

After I give them a tour I send them off to the Hermes cabin, and collapse on my bed. "When will I ever get a boyfriend?" I said to myself. "Never" Will said, making me jump. "Do you have a crush on the new kids?" He asked. "No, Jason has a girlfriend and Leo's too flirty." I said. "Good, because then I'd have to get Clarisse to pummel them." I snort. "That would be funny, I regret saying that now." He snorted.

Later that night at dinner I learn they all have gotten claimed. Leo is the son of Hephaestus, Jason, surprisingly Zeus, and Poor Piper was Aphrodite. She didn't look that happy either. I sat at my table and stared at them. They seemed to be fitting in brilliantly. Well, except for the fact that Jason was alone, and Piper hates Aphrodite's gift, but Leo was doing marvelous. _It fits him._

I finish my dinner and start walking back to my cabin. "Aspen, wait!" Leo says running up to me. "Can we walk?" "Uh, sure"

As we walk we talk. Somehow the conversation gets turned to my parents. "I'm adopted." I say. "I'm a half orphan as well." He says. "What happened to your mom?" He asks. "I don't know, I found out that I was adopted right before I came to camp." I answer. I go to ask him about his, when something stops me.

 **Leo's POV**

I'm glad she didn't ask about my mom. I release a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding and she looks at me strange. I look away.

"The sun's going down." She says, almost sad. "Wait, quickly sit down, I want to show you something." I sat down on the grass. After I look up again I see her face. It's light by glorious sunlight. She twists her hands, bending the light into different shapes. She looks absolutely beautiful. Her blue-green eyes shine with flecks of gold, and her golden hair flows behind her from a slight breeze.

She stops. "Sorry, the sun's going down, I didn't have much time." "Wow." She laughs. "Thank you." She says bowing. "I can do that too." I say standing up. "You can, bend sunlight?" She asks. I shake my head. "No, I'm fireproof, and can light myself on fire." I clarify. "Can you show me?" She asks. "Sure"

 **Aspen's POV**

He lit his hands on fire. I jumped back a bit because he had done it so suddenly and he laughed. "Come here, I promise I won't catch you on fire." I walk closer. I can feel the heat touching my face gently. Blood rushes to my face as I realize how close we were standing, but I just couldn't make myself back away.

His hair was tousled by the wind, and his tan skin shone. His eyes were the color of melted chocolate, with little specks of glowing red, almost like little chili flakes. I could see the flames licking across his hands and arms almost getting to his rolled up sleeve, I could see he wasn't letting them.

All of the sudden he puts it out. I look at the sky. "It's getting dark, we should probably go back to our cabin before the harpies eat us." He laughs. "I'm totally serious" I say. "Really?" He asks. "Yes." "Well I guess this is good night." He says. "Yup" I reply.

We walk back to our cabins. Once safely inside I turn around and sigh. "Do you have a crush?" Will asks. "Will you've got to stop doing that!" I scold. "Do you?" He asks again. "No!" He looks at me. "Then why'd you sigh?" "I'm annoyed" He walks away mumbling, "Didn't sound like an annoyed sigh to me." being the only sentence I can make out. I roll my eyes and lay in my bed, listening to music until I fall asleep.

 **Leo's POV**

I get into the Hephaestus cabin and shut the door. " _Smooth Valdez smooth."_ I tell myself. " _You try to impress her and then you fail, make it awkward and leave."_ It wasn't really my fault I had stopped. I started out fine, having been a little rusty from not doing it for a while, I may have singed my sleeves a little bit, but I don't think she noticed. All I could think about was my mom. When I saw the fire it took me back to then. " _I can't bear to face her tomorrow"_

 **Aspen's POV**

The next morning I got up. I was definitely not excited to see Leo again. Definitely not. At all. Okay, maybe a little, but I'm not even sure about that. He had been gone for such a long time on the quest, and I was maybe a little excited about it. I was excited to see Jason and Piper too.

I walk out of my cabin right into "Jason? Piper?" "Hi Aspen, have you seen Leo?" Jason asked "Not since last night, why?" "We haven't either, and we're a bit worried." I think for a moment. "Did you check his cabin?" "We don't know where it is." "Okay, let's go" We walk across the grass to the Hephaestus cabin.

"Leo?" No answer. I open the door. "No one's in there" I say. We look around camp until I think of a place. "We could try Bunker Nine?" I suggested. "Oh! That totally slipped my mind." Piper said.

I open the door and voila! There was Leo. "How'd you know I was here?" He questioned. "Just a hunch." I said. "Wait, how'd you find this place anyways?" I ask. "I was walking through the woods at like five am, when I found a door and opened it. Before the quest I mean"

"What?" I screech. "Do you know how dangerous that is? There are monsters in these woods, not to mention opening a strange door. Annabeth and Percy ended up in The Labyrinth! Which could take you anywhere, we already have one missing camper on our hands, we don't need another one!"

They all stare at me. "Sorry, I guess being around either Will, or Annabeth twenty-four seven is rubbing off on me." I rub my arm and look down at an oil-stained cloth.

 **Leo's POV**

She looks so guilty and stressed. "No, don't feel bad Aspen. You're right I could've gotten myself seriously hurt. Not killed though, that's not how I roll."

Piper rolls her eyes, as does Aspen. Jason has a weird look that I don't know what it is. He could just be constipated. "It's time for breakfast, we should probably go before we miss it."

On the way back Aspen and Jason are talking ahead of us about Percy's disappearance. Piper holds my arm. "Do you have a crush on her?" She asks. "No." I answer straightly. "Mmhm" She says in reply. "You don't apologise, or act that polite in front of anyone." I look down. "I guess I have my answer." She says walking towards the Aphrodite table. "Ugh" Was I really that easy to read? Maybe it's just because she's a daughter of Aphrodite. Jason catches my eye. He looks back and forth between me and Aspen and wiggles his eyebrows. "Oh brother"

 **Piper's POV**

I could tell Leo liked Aspen, and by the glances Aspen kept stealing at Leo, I could tell she liked him too. I wonder what they talked about last night when they went walking. After breakfast I walked up to Jason. "Jason, we should get Leo and Aspen together!" He looks at me strangely. "They obviously like each other." He thought for a moment. "It was pretty obvious that Leo liked Aspen, but I wasn't sure about Aspen." "She kept looking at him all during breakfast." "Really?" I rolled my eyes. "Yes, now do you want to hel-" I was cut off by Annabeth running towards us. She was breathless. "We found him."

 **A/N:** Again, I'm not going exactly by the books, so If i get the timeline wrong it was probably on purpose so the story could develop.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:Aspen**

We landed in California. I haven't been here since I was a kid, when my parents would take my siblings and I here to visit family. I wonder what they look like now. I wonder what my youngest brother looks like. He was three when I last saw him, now he'll start school this year. I wonder how they are growing up without me. What are they eating? McDonald's like before I left?

Terminus wouldn't let us land, so we had to climb down a rope ladder, Annabeth went first.

"I suppose this is a bad time to mention that I'm afraid of heights." I say as one by one everyone climbs down.

"Nah, Jason will catch you. Probably" Leo replied. I rolled my eyes as he went over, my turn next. I look over the edge. Terrifying. I throw my leg over the side of the ship, and began to climb down.

 _It's just like the high ropes course at camp._

 _That you only did once. And you're not harnessed in._

I close my eyes and stop for a second and focus on climbing down, not the drop. The wind blew and I stopped for a moment, gathered courage and continued.

"Congratulations, you made it down!" Leo exclaimed sarcastically when I made it down. I rolled my eyes when I spot Percy and Annabeth walking over.

"Aspen! Someone I recognize from Camp Half-Blood. Besides Annabeth of course." Percy exclaims, reaching out for a hug. I gladly hug back.

"How has living with the Romans been Percy?" I ask.

"Fun, their fighting style is different though. Greeks are all 'slashy slashy' and Romans are 'stabby stabby' which was different." I laugh.

"Good to see you again." I say.

"Good to see you too." He says in return

 _Time Skip_

To be honest I forgot what happened after that, I zoned out when Reyna mentioned food. I was really hungry, I hadn't eaten breakfast as I was reading a book and I didn't care about getting up to go get a bowl of cereal.

Now we were sitting here, Leo on my right side, Jason and Piper next to him, Percy and Annabeth on my left and Percy's friends Frank and Hazel across from us. Leo kept making quiet remarks about the Romans resulting in a pinch from me.

"Oh look, here comes Octopus" Leo says. I pinch him.

"That's not his name and you know it, is Octavian or something." I stand up to greet him.

"Hi! I'm Aspen." I reach my hand for him to shake it.

"And who is your godly parent?" He asked. "Probably some minor god." He said to no one in particular.

"Oh, I don't know, I think what my father is the god of is pretty important." I replied

"Typical minor god offspring behavior, always so convinced it's important."

"Who is your parent, or godly ancestor since you guys have those." I ask.

"I am a descendant of the great Apollo!" He practically shouts. "Tell me which minor god is your parent, I'm not going to ask again."

It's all I can do to keep Leo from laughing. Percy snorts and looks down at his food. I think Annabeth may have kicked him.

"I'm the daughter of Apollo, actually so we're related." I answer.

Octavian looks like he was punched in the stomach. He walks away soon after that. Percy and Leo burst out laughing. Once they finished I ask Hazel: "Are all the Apollo people like that here? Because I can assure you they're not like that at Camp Half-Blood. She laughs.

"No, strangely it's just him."

Octavian later comes back and Annabeth tell Leo to show him around the Argo II. I volunteer to go in order to keep Leo in line.

After an awkward tour where Octavian kept trying to challenge us on where the hidden weapons were, and I kept telling him there were none and he needed to stop saying that, we ended up relaxing in the Control Room.

Once we got in there, Leo started acting really weird. I swear his eyes flashed gold a time or two.

He started walking to the control panel.

"Leo what are you doing?" I ask. He doesn't reply.

"Leo," I say louder, "What are you doing." I grab his arm and he looks at me. His eyes flashing gold. He grabs my arm and throws me back into the wall with an inhuman strength. Octavian starts screaming and running down the ship towards the ladder.

I get up, shaking from the impact and grab Leo's arm in an attempt to stop him. The unnatural glowing gold in his eyes was the last thing I saw before everything went black.

The next thing I know is Annabeth calling my name.

"Wha...what happened?"

"Leo blew up part of Camp Jupiter"

"What happened to you?" Percy asked.

"I'm not quite sure, but my head really hurts" I respond. My body is shaking.

They take me to medbay while the others search for Leo. My head was throbbing. Piper came in and gave me some ambrosia. After she left to go see what was going on I closed my eyes. When I opened them, everything was black.

" _Hello Aspen" a voice whispers behind me. I whip around to see who it was but I was met with nothing._

" _It's been a while since I have heard about you. A while since your incident. Now you're on a fool's errand." The voice talks again, this time from my left side._

" _Who are you?" I ask. I hear a taunting laugh._

" _You know who I am, daughter of Apollo. I used to to talk to you all the time. Excuse me if I sound different, I'm a bit more awake now"_

 _The voice sounds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it._

" _Daughter of Apollo, probably most powerful. You only know a small extent of your powers, your ability to make music out of thin air, or your ability to bend sunlight"_

" _How do you know about that?" I snap._

" _I know everything about you, I can help you learn the extent of your powers if you side with me, you will be rewarded extensively."_

 _A hand wraps around my arm as a woman appears. My lungs seize and my heart thuds against my chest as I realize who she was and why she was so familiar. I go to scream but I can't, everything turns to black all around me, my whole body becomes paralyzed as I try to run, move, scream, escape, leave…_

I sit up in a cold sweat. It seems to be night. As I swing my legs off of the bed I stop, feeling too weak to stand. I take a deep breath, count to three and stand, swaying for a minute until I determine I'm strong enough to walk to the kitchen to get something to eat.

I open the fridge to get the turkey and mayo for my sandwich when I hear a footstep creak down the hall. I pat my thighs only to find I don't have my usual knife there and look around for the knife drawer. I grab a cleaver when I hear something breathing right behind me, I turn around to find a Jason. We both release the breath we had been holding and relax.

"When did you wake up?" He asks.

"A couple of minutes ago, why?"

"You've been out for days, I was out for days and woke up before you"

"Weird, I don't remember getting hurt that bad"

He watches me while I finish making my sandwich, as if he was trying to remember something.

"I'm going to head off to bed," He said. "You should too. It's late and you'll have to tell everyone your account of the story."

"Nah, I wouldn't be able to sleep. I'll go take over for whoever's watch it is."

"That would be me" He answered

"Okay, well good night then Jason."

"Night Aspen"

I start eating my sandwich as I walk outside onto the deck. I sit down and cross my legs and start staring at the night sky.

"Hey, you're awake." Leo says, walking up to me.

"Yeah, woke up a couple minutes ago and I can't seem to sleep. I thought I might as well do something useful."

He chuckles, filling the velveteen sky with sound. I playfully punch him.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"Don't attract monsters!" I whisper yell

He mimics chuckling at a whisper

"Is that better?" He asks

"Much better"

We sit in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, breathing in the night air. It was warm, but not too muggy, which I was glad for. I watch Leo, he just stares off the ship. My mind takes me back to when we first met, when we first showed each other our powers. The way he stopped so suddenly still confuses me.

"Leo?"

"Mmhm" he mutters.

"When we first met, when we were showing each other our powers, why did you stop so suddenly?"

The air became very tense around him.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to. We all have secrets. I just thought that maybe if someone knew, it would help in a way."

"It's fine" he whispers back "It's just a bad memory" he said, getting up.

"Okay, just wanted you to know I am here"

He nods and walks off

I adjust more to be a bit more comfortable. I hear a voice inside my head.

" _Hello human"_

"Hello? Who are you?" I say in my head

" _I am an eidolon, the Earth Mother promised life again, but I must kill you first."_

"What?" I try to yell or warn the others as to what's going on, but my mouth is muffled.

" _The only reason I'm not using you to kill your friends is because your fatal flaw is strong enough to stop me."_

"What's my fatal flaw?"

" _You want everyone to be happy, so you continuously sacrifice yourself for others, no matter what the price. Earth Mother wants to get rid of you now, but the others she will save, she needs them later. The only reason you're conscious right now is because The Earth Mother wants you to suffer."_

I… I mean the eidolon starts walking towards the edge of the ship. I start fighting with all of my might to stop, it's worked. I mean, we don't stop but we slow down. I'm constantly screaming for help in my brain, but no one can hear me.

I hear footsteps behind me, I whirl around to see Leo. Thank Hades, he was here to save me. Were his eyes always gold? As he steps closer the gold fades out replaced with brown again. Must've been a trick of the lighting.

His eyes widen as he sees me tottering on the edge of the ship. He freezes

"Aspen, get down from there please." He draws out the last part making it sound like 'pleeeaase' "You could get hurt"

His eyes turn gold again as he takes out a button and pushes it, sounding the alarm made to wake everyone up in case there was a monster attacking the ship. His eyes turn brown again.

He continues pleading with me to get down, as the rest of the eight including Hedge, shows up. All the while I'm standing there straight as a needle.

"Aspen! What are you doing up there?" Annabeth says, her voice drenched with worry.

" _I am an eidolon. The Earth Mother promised us life again. Her fatal flaw of sacrificing herself for the happiness and life of others will get in the way. She must die."_

I watch as everyone visibly tenses up.

"Eidolon, please get off this ship and out of my friend" Piper says, her voice rich with Charmspeak.

" _With pleasure"_ I feel my mouth forming a grin. All of the sudden, whatever weight that was holding me on the edge of the ship was gone and a gust of wind blew me off the edge of the ship.

I start falling, I try to do something to help the landing, anything. But none of my sun-bending powers are working.

I close my eyes to brace for the impact when I feel an arm wrap around my waist. I look up to see Jason. I have never been more excited to see that blonde mop of hair in my life.

When we finally reach the ship and land I drop to the ground shaking. I feel like throwing up. Everyone surges around me.

"Give her some room!" Annabeth yells as she pushes everyone away.

I adjust position so my back is leaning against the wall of the Argo II.

"Percy, go get her some water." Annabeth commands. Percy scurries away to do Annabeth's bidding.

After Percy comes back with my water, I take a sip and my stomach starts to settle a bit. I sigh.

"You know," I begin "I have never been more excited to see Jason then just now." Everyone laughs, easing the tension in the air.

"What happened?" Percy asked

"I don't know, one minute I was sitting here looking at the stars and the next minute the eidolon was in my head and forcing me to jump overboard."

It's silent for a moment.

"I suddenly don't feel so protected and secure on this boat." Frank said.

"Okay, so it doesn't stand up to ghosts, big deal we can just lock our doors so we can't jump off or something, this ship is a big, hot, spanking war machine okay? It can stand up to anything." Leo almost shouted.

"Can't stand up to ghosts." Frank fired back

Leo's face flushed with red, he opened his mouth to say something but Annabeth beat him to it.

"It may not stand up to ghosts but it's the best we've got so you'll have to deal with it, we clearly have had a lot of trouble for one night so we should all just go to bed."

Everyone shuffles back inside. Except Leo. When I go to walk inside he stops me.

"Can I talk to you?" I see the look in his eyes which tells me that he's feeling a lot of emotions so I oblige.

"When I saw you standing there," he begins "All I could think about was how it was my fault just like my mom." He stops for a moment.

"Why would it be your fault?" I ask

"I don't know, I just wouldn't tell you anything about my mom." He lets out a soft chuckle.

"I wouldn't flatter yourself there buddy." I told him. He laughs, for real this time. Filling up the night with warmth and sound.

It gets quiet again and he starts talking.

"I've grown up my whole life remembering what happened with my mom. I burned the building that she was in. I killed her. I was so worried that I had done the same to you, I guess the thought of losing you made my senses go crazy and made me think it was my fault."

I reach over and hug him. It was one sided at first but after a moment he hugged me back. Let me tell you, his hugs are THE best hugs you'll ever have. It's warm and tight and comfortable. They feel like home.

We hug for what seems like forever, but at the same time just a couple seconds before he breaks it, all too soon. As I pull away I see tears in his eyes. One pushes over the edge of his eyelid and rolls down his cheek. I wipe it off.

"Thanks, I just haven't had a hug like that for a long time."

I look back up to his eyes and freeze. I realize how close we were standing, which to be honest happens a lot. Why don't I realize it faster?

His eyes are the definition of chocolate brown. Dark and deep and rich, and they look like they could pull you in at any moment. But just like chocolate, there was a twinge if bitterness, as if someone had wronged him years ago, so badly that he could never fix it. Finally when I get to the inner part of his iris I see a ring of gold, that I don't think belongs there. I don't remember it at all.

Around his eyes was red, and a bit sunken in. I kept going back to the gold around his pupil. Why was that there?

My face must've shown how perplexed I was because Leo pulled even further away, breaking the intimate eye contact.

"What were you looking at?" He asked.

"Nothing, I, um, Yeah nothing." I answer "I better get to bed though so see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow I guess." He answers.

 **Third POV**

Leo could have stared into her eyes forever, analyzing the different colors in her eyes, the different shades of green and blue. With those little flecks of gray and gold. Although he saw a strange ring of gold on the inner of her iris that he hadn't noticed before. He swore it wasn't there last time. There was black stuff around her eyelids that he guessed was eyeliner. It was smudged from being unconscious for so long. That was another thing he felt bad about.

That's when he noticed her face, she looked really confused. He thought maybe he had done something wrong and it had confused her.

He laid in his bunk wishing he could go back to that moment and analyze her eyes more, as well as the rest of her face. Wishing he didn't step back.

He jumped out of bed. " _You only have one shot at this"_ He told himself. He walked out onto the deck to were you were sitting.

"Leo? I thought you went to bed." Aspen told him.

" _Hades, she looks perfect sitting there."_ Her legs were crossed and she had a confused expression on her face. " _God's I love the crinkle in her eyebrows when she's confused. I hope she doesn't have that face after I do what I came to do."_ Aspen stood up. She stepped closer to Leo.

"Leo? Why are you out here? You haven't said a word."

" _She thinks I'm stupid. Only one way to fix it."_

Leo takes a step closer until they're faces match up.

"Can I kiss you?" Leo whispered. Aspen smiled.

"Yes." She whispered back.

Leo leaned forward and their lips met. Her lips were as soft as satin, and they tasted strangely like potato chips. As they pulled apart her eyes were still closed, her eyelashes resting against her cheek. She smiled and opened her eyes.

"About Time flame brain." She said, still smiling. "Will you be my girlfriend" Leo asked, still whispering.

"What do I get out of it?" Aspen said with a smirk

"Me?"

"Okay, I guess." She said. She pecked Leo on the cheek and began to walk away, but stopped suddenly. "Let's not tell anyone and just see them figure it out for themselves." She turned back around and walked around the corner. She popped her head back around. "It's also your watch now." She waved and walked presumably to her cabin. Leo was left standing there with a stupid smile on his face.

" _That went way better than I expected"_


End file.
